moosilauke view

moosilauke view
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

Soon, I left Moosilauke's summit and decided that I had time to do a loop back to the car.

As it turned out, I was cutting it close. Moosilauke Carriage Rd is a very easy trip all the way to Hurricane Trail. It's wide, not too steep, and has some nice views on the way down.

But Hurricane Trail was a mess. The 800 ft climb from Moosilauke Carriage Rd to the summit was a river, with lots of deep puddles that needed to be navigated with care. That made the going very slow. I think it took over an hour to do about 1.6 miles here. It didn't help that I was tired from the Moosilauke climb already.

I hit the saddle near Hurricane Mtn at around 4 pm. I was already worried that I'd be coming out in darkness, so I made my way down the trail as quickly as possible. This half of the trail was still wet, but not nearly as bad as the other side.

I made it out at 5 pm, and there was still plenty of light, so I got lucky there. Not much room for error. Overall, though, it was a great day!